(1890-1957). Cypriot Landscape. (Likely the ruins of Mount St. Hilarion Fortress, located on the Kyrenia mountain range, Cyprus).

<<Provenance:>> The Property of a Gentleman, Athens, Greece. Despite the considerable acclaim David Bomberg had received as a young painter before the First World War, by the outbreak of the Second World War, his work was out of favor with most critics. With the end of the war, teaching posts became available and in August 1945 he secured a part-time position teaching Fine Art at Borough Polytechnic in London. His unconventional teaching techniques and commitment to painting inspired such loyalty among his students that a handful banded together to form the Borough Group. They declared that the Group had been “founded on the belief that there is in nature a truth and a realism which the usual contemporary approach to painting is unable to convey.” This statement which was written by Bomberg, reflected his belief that in a technological age often characterized by alienation and destruction, humanity needed to reconnect with Nature. For him landscape painting, once released from the stultifying conventions of academicism, could provide this link. In the summer of 1948 Bomberg spent several weeks in Cyprus. The paintings he executed there were not intended to be a topographically accurate depiction of a particular part of the Cypriot countryside. Instead, as with his earlier landscape paintings, Bomberg sought to reveal the underlying structure of the land and give a sense of its character and spirit. The fiery colours, the range of textures and vigorous marks imbue the painting with an overwhelming sense of movement and vitality that is in keeping with Bomberg's own view of nature and how it should be represented. (Toby Treves, for the Tate Gallery, London. See www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bomberg-trees-in-sun-cyprus-t06634). <<Literature:>> See William Lipke, David Bomberg (1967) pp. 94-7 and Tate Gallery Catalogue, David Bomberg (1988) pp. 123-4. For other paintings by Bomberg created during the course of his visit to Cyprus in 1948, see: Bonhams (London), Twentieth Century British Art, 28th November, 2006, Lot 73; and Sotheby’s (London), Modern British and Irish Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, 26th November, 1997, Lot 76.